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2025 County Report

Fires in Jefferson County, IN

In 2025, fire departments serving Jefferson County responded to 139 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $300K property loss.

16,412 residents FIPS 18077 23 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
139
921 across 5 years
Building fires
37
7 wildland
Property loss
$1.4M
$967K structure · $480K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.

139
Total Incidents
Building fires 37 26.6%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 23 16.5%
Unauthorized burning 21 15.1%
Hazardous condition, other 7 5.0%
Carbon monoxide incident 7 5.0%
All other categories 44 31.7%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Jefferson County?

Jan peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 20
Feb 10
Mar 16
Apr 15
May 7
Jun 19
Jul 11
Aug 19
Sep 0
Oct 0
Nov 13
Dec 9
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Jefferson County

921 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 149
2022 213
2023 196
2024 224
2025 139
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 37 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
56%
15
Cause undetermined
15%
4
Intentional / arson
4%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
15%
4
Under investigation
7%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $963K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Jefferson County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $300,000 Madison Building fires Major
2 $200,000 Town of Hanover Building fires Significant
3 $200,000 City of Madison Building fires Significant
4 $75,000 City of Madison Building fires Significant
5 $50,000 Town of Hanover Building fires Significant
6 $50,000 City of Madison Building fires Significant
7 $50,000 City of Madison Building fires Significant
8 $20,000 Town of Hanover Building fires Significant
9 $10,000 Chelsea Building fires Significant
10 $8,000 City of Madison Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Jefferson County compares

Jefferson County vs IN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

8.47
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Jefferson County
8.47
IN avg
8.61
US avg
7.15
2.25
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Jefferson County
2.25
IN avg
1.26
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Jefferson County
0
IN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Jefferson County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 18077.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Jefferson County

1 departments report from this county.

Thunderbird Fire Protection Territory
FARMERSBURGSHELBURN
FDID 77002 0 incidents 35 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in IN

Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).

About this data

County-level NFIRS aggregates for 2025, plus 5-year totals across 2021–2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Wildfire risk score (0–100) and Expected Annual Loss come from FEMA's National Risk Index. Drought class is the most recent USDM classification (D0 = abnormally dry through D4 = exceptional drought). Historical fire perimeters are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.